


Everything

by purloinedinpetrograd



Category: Dark Shadows (1966)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-15
Updated: 2012-05-15
Packaged: 2017-11-05 09:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/405093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purloinedinpetrograd/pseuds/purloinedinpetrograd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, it bothers Angelique that she cannot give Barnabas everything he needs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everything

Sometimes, it bothers Angelique that she cannot give Barnabas everything that he needs. She gives him a home to live in and respite from the sun, she gives him an escape from an ever increasingly aware world; sometimes, she instead gives him a way to slip in with this world unnoticed, and even rarer, sometimes she lets him visit the family he left behind. Still,  _still_ , after all these years, his family is embedded in his identity; Barnabas is a Collins, and it is the only thing that can never be stripped from him. 

_(Angelique knows this because, just one time, and a time that Barnabas will never remember and to him has never occurred, Angelique decided to stretch the man she had fought to keep by her side to his limits. She had wanted to see just how far he could be bent, could be shaped like clay beneath her hands, by now so skilled in sculpting a reality designed to please her. By the end, even when Barnabas had been smoothed away, Collins remained no matter how hard she tried. But she had never wanted a puppet - had just wanted to see - so she wiped away her manipulations.)_

The family Barnabas now knows is not the same family he left all those years before; Angelique knows that, in this timeline, Barnabas shares no blood with them. And yet, it is enough for Barnabas, and it is Angelique that gives it to him and all is well. But there is still  _this -_ this one thing that Angelique can never provide. She sees it in the tension that has sunk into his muscles, in the darkening of his eyes - Barnabas is going to need blood, is going to need it soon.

He will never feed from Angelique. He doesn’t want to - has never even asked ( _Angelique is forever grateful for this, because if he were to ask she would have to say no, and she never wants to have to say no to Barnabas - not again, not after how far they have come.)_

Barnabas will never feed from Angelique because feeding doesn’t just involve giving your life’s blood to the vampire, it involves giving them your  _surrender._  And that is the one thing that Barnabas will never get from Angelique - at least, not now, not anymore. ( _Sometimes, Angelique thinks back to long summer nights, to the feeling of lips against hers that she claimed for the first time, the hesitant strokes of lovers coming together for the first time - then, back in Martinique, she would have surrendered to Barnabas. But hundreds of years separate the Barnabas and Angelique that first discovered each other to the Barnabas and Angelique strung together of today, these two war-wearied survivors of each other and the rest of the world. Some things can never be reversed. It is simply the natural laws at work.)_

Though Angelique knows Barnabas does not want this of her, it still stings when those nights come where, after rising from his coffin Barnabas does not come to her arms but to the arms of some strange woman - sometime the same for long stretches, sometimes a new one each time his hunger takes him. It still hurts knowing that they are able to provide something that Barnabas needs - something  _intimate. (In doing so these meaningless women own a part of Barnabas inaccessible to Angelique, and this is unforgivable; when Barnabas is done with each one, if he has not killed them himself she steals away during the day as he rests to stop their hearts herself. No one else can live besides Angelique who owns any of Barnabas Collins.)_

But maybe, Angelique muses, maybe she  _can_  give Barnabas what he needs, even if it does not come from her own body or soul.Which is why, when the sun sinks below the horizon and Barnabas rises, Angelique calls to him with her magic. She sends out tendrils to wrap around him, pulling him towards her and away from the dark alleys he hungered to prowl. She sits in wait in the drawing room, reclined in a fashion that once upon a time would be looked upon as deeply unladylike, but in these strange new times is perfectly acceptable. “Barnabas, my love, I have something for you.” She smiles at his confusion, written plainly on his face. ( _Barnabas thinks himself to be in control of his emotions, to be able to hide his true thoughts from Angelique - but she has spent so many years with him, so long studying that face that to her it is as easy to read as any book.)_

He begins to protest, but then the mousy young girl standing meekly in the corner of the room is brought to his attention, and he stills. He casts a bewildered look at Angelique - eyes revealing that he  _knows_  what is happening but searching for confirmation. Angelique merely extends her hand in the girl’s direction, a clear invitation. “Enjoy,” she says, crossing her legs and bringing her hand back to her lap and intertwines her fingers.

She can see how uneasy Barnabas is with this; he has never fed in front of her - not like this, not so  _openly_. But the hunger overwhelms any reservations Barnabas might have held, for he slowly walks toward the girl who, upon his approach, merely tilts her head to the side, hair falling away to reveal her pale and vulnerable throat. Barnabas looks over again at Angelique, hesitating, fangs bared and ready to bite and yet uncertain -

But then Angelique nods at him, a tiny, subtle motion that might have been missed if it were not given to a man who had known her for lifetimes over. Not hesitating again, Barnabas sinks his teeth into the smooth flesh bared before him, reveling in the warmth that fills his mouth. He still hasn’t taken his eyes from Angelique, and she makes no motion to leave - does not even remove her gaze from Barnabas’s. 

 _Yes_ , Angelique thinks to herself as she watches the satisfaction wash over Barnabas’s look, the hunger fading fast and the light returning in its place. She  _can_  give Barnabas everything.


End file.
